The Press of Space, the Weight of the Future

SyFy Press Tour – Stargate: Universe

by Sylvia Bond

I’ve done interviews before, but my first foray into the group interview situation (aka “press junket”) was when I was invited up to Vancouver for a day of meet and greet with the actors, producers, and writers of some of Syfy channel’s newest and most high-profile shows. Even though it was a bit last minute, who was I to refuse the opportunity to walk amongst the sets and trappings of Caprica, Stargate: Universe, Sanctuary, and Alice? Not to mention the glitter and razzle dazzle of meeting people who I had only previously interacted with through the filter of a TV screen. So yeah, I jumped at the chance. Leapt, even.

The night before, the press had been housed at the Sutton Place Hotel, a swank place in a posh part of town, and early on the 6th of October, we were all herded onto a very nice bus to be taken to the Bridge Studios in Burnaby. I’m awfully fond of bus rides to begin with because it gives me the opportunity to stare out the window and mark my surroundings with my eyes. Plus, this bus was filled with likewise minded people, with whom I’d shared a drink (or two) the night before, and Vancouver is a lovely city, filled with green and growing things, but you don’t want to hear about that, do you. No, you want to hear about IT.

IT was Bridge Studios, an unprepossessing looking group of warehouse-type buildings behind a fence topped with razor wire. Okay, maybe it wasn’t really razor wire, but it was a tightly secured facility with an adorable miniature mansion as the gate house. Our bus trundled through, and when we parked, we were right away treated to a hot breakfast in the parking lot. But it was great because there was a white tent with heaters and plenty of tables to sit at. Plus there was a catering service that would make you pretty much anything you wanted to eat, all of it delicious and they kept the coffee coming. What’s more, from my observations, this is how a typical production team (everyone from actors to best boys) gets fed: the catering truck comes to their location and takes care of everything. So we were being given an experience of what it’s like to be filming on location.

Even more cool (and you’re going to love this) they were ALL there. You know who I mean. Them. The actors we know and love. Okay, not exactly the actors we know, but the ones who play the characters we love. I didn’t realize it till I sat down with my fast breakfast of sausage and eggs and a biscuit (and coffee with cream and sugar, of course), and happened to look up and saw someone I thought I recognized. You know, the way you do in a strange city, thinking, who’s that, I think I know him, but I couldn’t possibly know anyone here. One of my tablemates, playing it real cool, said, “Yeah, that’s him.” I had to blink a couple of times, but then another actor wandered in, and then another, and then another, and…well, the whole tent was full of them! Getting their breakfast just like regular people.

Yes, yes, I know, I know. They ARE regular people, but it was just a little disconcerting to see them out of the element where I’m used to seeing them. And so many. So there and present and just…them. Eating breakfast. Naturally, they all sat with their peeps, but it was so very easy to get up and walk over and say hello, and you could. It was all very relaxed. Some of the press did pay visits, but I was a tad overwhelmed at that point, not having expected it, so I just ate my breakfast.

Afterwards, when we’d all cleared our own plates (which is how the stars do it, don’t you know, and I do know, ‘cause I saw Robert Carlyle himself doing the that very thing), we were led into the big building that housed the Stargate: Universe set. At least most of it, I’m pretty sure the white sand of that desert planet was done on location somewhere. So here goes. You walk in, and floor to ceiling, it’s the ship . No lie. Floor to ceiling, all gritty grey and purple-streaked alien technology, looking metallic and real and just, well, just awesome.

There was barely enough room between the set and the outer wall, and we got to explore it. And I mean everywhere. We could take pictures, we could touch things, press buttons, stroke the stargate. We could rub against it if we wanted to, and I’m fairly comfortable thinking that there were some takers on that. We wandered and chatted and poked and ooohed and ahhed like little kids on Christmas morning. My favorite moment was when the very sophisticated TV editor from New York suddenly turned, handed someone her camera, posed in front of the stargate, and with a huge grin on her face, said, “I’m gating! Take my picture!” Oh, fandom, thy name is joy.

Then after we’d had time to soak it all in, we got taken on an official tour and have it explained to us why the many hallways and doorways and tables and benches were set up the way they were, and how much care had gone into planning it all so that you could have a slightly different camera angle and it would look like a totally different hallway. We were shown sliding doors, and moving walls, and had the stargate demonstrated for us, including steam (talk about a WOW moment), and our tour guide sounded proud of the set, and so he should be. Everything, every inch, was detailed down to the smallest level. You know those little lights in the floor? The underside of each piece of plastic glass was hand painted for maximum effect to look like many years growth of alien mold. It was evidence of a devotion that was almost fanatical, but with that kind of passion at that level, the end result can’t help but being good.

After that we were led back into the main bridge area, where there were seats set up for the press, and those canvas star chairs in the front for the production team: actors, writers, producers, I honestly couldn’t place anyone at that point, because never having seen the show (yet, though I’d seen the movie and both earlier series), I couldn’t relate any of the people up there to a particular role. Since I’m a character-driven viewer, that’s kind of critical to me.

I did, however, recognize Lou Diamond Phillips right away, which only makes sense because he’s an actor’s actor who has been in so many things I’ve seen and enjoyed over the years such as La Bamba, Renegades, Numb3rs, and the play “A Few Good Men,” which I had the good fortune to see during the summer of 2007. The point is that his was a face I recognized, and it made me feel more comfortable in the sea of glittering glitter. (He plays Colonel David Telford, a manly career military man who takes his job and his coffee very seriously. And I swear, I will never get tired of watching Lou Diamond Phillips walk around in military fatigues!)

So naturally, my first question (amidst the many questions that were asked in that hour) went to him. I asked: “Any scars from the rat biting incident in “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” and any opportunity to integrate your status as King of the Jungle and if so how?”

Amidst the giggles and snorts, here was his answer: “Yes, um, yes, (as he shows us his hand) there’s the one that took five stitches, and if you look very closely there are the other teeth marks that are there. I’m very proud to say that Brad and Robert and the rest of the writers are doing their best to scar me on SGU.”

Then he ran with it: “It seems like every time I show up on the ship, I get my ass kicked, which is odd since I’m the tallest person in the cast. But uh, I think Ming-Na is going to kick my ass, which would be great (“I’ll do it right now,” interjected Ming-Na). You know. But I yeah, I was king of the jungle, I was King of Siam, I’ve been the King of England, you know, I think I’m going to start working on queens, next, I mean, pink rayguns and what not, why not.” Cue more laughter and giggles as Mr. Phillips waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, going with the moment and having a good time.

It was a good and a fun question to ask, and fortunate too, that I asked it, because my next question didn’t go over so well. It was a question from one of our valuable readers, and here is what I asked: “This is a question for any of the female leads, or the male leads, if they feel they have an answer. How is the show going to approach female characters differently than they have in the past? Like for example, what happened to Teyla, that was one of the questions from one of our readers.”

“What happened to Teyla?” Brad Wright asked. I replied, “I think they wanted the female characters to be represented less as tokens and more as integral parts of the cast or the team.”

Ming-Na took the question and here is what she had to say: “After meeting with Amanda Tapping, I think, I mean she was an incredibly integral part of the beginning of Stargate, and for me, I didn’t know the Stargate franchise as well until I started watching and doing my research and I mean, she’s an amazingly strong and wonderful female character. I think that continues with Stargate: Universe.”

After a flat little pause, Brad Wright spoke up: “We have strong storylines for all of the women this season, definitely. And I take some exception to it because we did have arcs for Teyla’s character, but let’s not go back, let’s not go back to the past, let’s not fight that battle.”

Both of the answers felt somewhat disjointed to me, but I suppose the question felt out of place to them as well. In their minds, naturally, the Stargate franchise has created strong women and enjoys developing their stories, like they said.

But coming from a viewer who is female, I would say that their perspective is a little skewed. The problem with strong female characters is that TV-land is run by men and while they might start with an uzi-toting, commander-in-chief, muscle-toned female character, eventually she is relegated to jiggling her boobs, showering naked, having babies, and letting her hair hang down.

Whether this is due to TV’s limited perspectives on what makes a strong female, or the lack of a awareness of what viewers really want in female characters, or even, that the ratings demand boobs, or that TV starts to fear the strong female characters that they themselves created and start to take off her clothes in the script, I will never know. Just that, yes, there is a problem here, and even when confronted face to face with it, TV tends to shake its head and say, no, viewer, you’re wrong.

Pink Raygun’s editor, Lisa Fary, sees it differently too. She recently posted a wonderful diatribe about that very thing, based on the fact that the most recent SGU episode “Darkness” had, yes, braless boobs, and naked female showering. Ms. Fary has asked for, and indeed, I agree with her, that for every boob and every female jiggle, that there be an equal and appropriate male exploitation. You want to see ratings go up? Who the heck do you think controls the remote controls in most households? Who do you think knows how to work the Tivo and the DVR? It’s not always the men, uh-huh.

Afterwards, we were taken back out to the tents in the parking lot and fed a gourmet lunch of prime rib, mushroom puffs, groiled potatoes, and some chocolate mousse concoction that we all tried to refuse (watching our girlish figures, you know) but that we all ended up eating anyway, it was that frakking good. And there were the actors and writers and producers again in the tent again, hanging around the desert table like regular people do when they’re trying to resist something that’s delicious that they feel they shouldn’t have. By this time, I was more used to their faces, familiar and yet unfamiliar, so I’m like elbowing David Blue out of the way to get to the good stuff. (I think I might have stepped on Ming-Na’s foot, and lord, I hope not, she was so delicate!)

Then as I was clearing my plate, there, by the heater, was Lou Diamond Phillips, all lean and tawny and masculine, just chatting up a storm with a couple of people, and yeah, I went up and fangirled him. I couldn’t help it, okay? He was so nice and pleasant earlier and he’d answered my question so graciously, I wanted a bit more of that. I know that actors are paid to be gracious, but sometimes you can get the sense that they really want to be there, and are enjoying themselves. So in the midst of all this Syfy-based stuff, what do you think I told him as my opening sally? “My sister is a big fan of yours,” I said. “Oh, yeah?” he said, smiling, little, with those adorable crinkles around his eyes. “Yeah,” I said. “Renegades, you know.” He nodded; he knew.

Getting fairly serious (as I tend to be), I had to tell him what I really thought. “I’m a big fan of Numb3rs, and I really enjoy your work as Ian Edgerton.” (Totally nothing to do with anything Syfy-related, right?) And then he goes, “Why, thank you!” with this smile that rather burst out of him like sunrays, and I think I yammered on about the density and strong presence he brought to the character, and how much I loved the family dynamics of the Eppes brothers.

Then he started telling me how he was headed back to L.A. soon to do another ep as Ian Edgerton, and said, “You’ll really like that ep, it’s very Eppes-centric, it’s going to be all about the brothers.” I think I laughed at that because it sounded like a pun at the time (an ep about the Eppes), and my mind instantly went to the time Don Eppes got sliced up by an attacker, and how messed up Charlie Eppes was about that because he felt guilty, and how interesting it all was. I think what I was thinking must have showed on my face because Mr. Phillips tipped his head at me and I got what I’d call a secret little smile, and he said, “It’s going to be great; you’ll love it.” What a nice man. Seriously.

Soon we were hustled back on the bus to be taken to another studio location for the Caprica portion of the press tour, all a-tumble with coats and hats and notes, and the excited chatter about how COOL Bridge Studios had been. I rather thought it was nice of the Syfy channel to feed us and cart us around and to let us experience their playground.

Afterward: Upon my arrival home, I finally got a chance to watch all the newest SGU eps (”Air”, Parts I, II, and III, and “Darkness”), and I was suitably impressed. While the plotline might be borrowed a tad from other shows and ideas, what show isn’t? I felt that SGU did a good job making it not only new, but real.

Take, for example, the similar story concept used by the TV series Star Trek: Voyager, where the starship Voyager gets flung billions of light years away from home and has to struggle to get back to Earth’s solar system. Still, along the way, they never seem to run out of supplies, or get very dirty, or have any thing truly bad happen.

SGU, on the other hand, takes a very realistic look at the prospect of this very same scenario. In contrast there’re constant shortages of water and air and food, it’s dark and claustrophobic on the alien ship, people sweat, and curse, and squabble, they talk about how everyone smells bad on account of not showering, people go down to alien planets and get sunburns that last through at least two episodes. You see what I’m saying? In SGU (as much as I love, love, love Star Trek in all its guises), space is a dirty, dark, gritty, uncomfortable place where actions have consequences and people suffer. It made a very needed change from the usual easy-to-solve “oh, my, we’ve run out of…um, something, let’s find it on this nice, green, Earth-like planet and locate it” scenario we usually get.

I also liked the characters, too, and watching the characters adjust to space. It was particularly interesting seeing the people I had met (or seen) in Vancouver turn into characters who had realistic dialog and human concerns and everything good that a fangirl likes.

If I had to pick out a character or two to hang my hat on, my first choice would be the character of Eli Wallace, played by David Blue. Eli’s one of the many unwilling passengers on the Destiny, and though he’s very much a fish out of water, and exposed to danger pretty much all the time, he goes around doing his best to make it fun and interesting for himself, because really, space is like one of his favorite video games come to life. (Except for the part where there’s no reset button.) I love how he quotes movie lines (most specifically Charlton Heston from Planet of the Apes) and how he’s simply jazzed about being on the show, to quote Guy from Galaxy Quest. He is Everyman, he is us, inexperienced, yet well read, and I thought they did an excellent job representing how it would really be for a civilian.

I also liked the Tamara Johansen character, (played by the very beautiful Alaina Huffman), who is a medic on the ship and a strong female character with Rapunzel hair. She’s not supposed to be there, but having turned down an earlier opportunity to pick up her scholarship and go back to school, she’s stranded on Destiny, and forced to use her paramedic skills above and beyond her capacity. She rises to the occasion, doesn’t let herself get used as a doormat, and keeps her own counsel. I suspect (and fear) that her strength will soon be scaring TV people, and down will come those luscious locks and off will come the clothes, there’ll be a shower scene, and lo, she will be marginalized. I will stay tuned, however.

Another character I liked was Dr. Nicholas Rush (played by Robert Carlyle), the scary smart scientist who has devoted his life to exploring stargates. One particular scene I enjoyed of his was during the ep Darkness. Dr. Rush starts the ep by screaming at people and hollering and spitting, just chewing up the alien scenery, and letting his anger out at anyone who walks by, and it streams through his fingertips and his eyes, even his hair was screaming.

It was marvelous to watch the progression of his spiraling out of control and so very, very satisfying to see him collapse like a damsel in distress at the end because he’s simply had it, he’s pushed himself past oblivion trying to save the ship and all the people on it, because people keep Pushing Every Damn Button They Can Find, and they won’t stop. His troubles felt real and urgent and I love the way Carlyle just doesn’t hold back. Ever. (Although watching Dr. Rush doing math calculations on the white board will never be as sexy as Charlie Eppes doing the same, you realize.)

All in all, it was a very satisfying experience, and I’ll be tuning in for new Stargate: Universe eps, you bet!

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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